Blood and Roses
by Auster
Summary: Sixth oneshot - 'The dead, after all, do not walk backwards. But they do walk behind us. They are victims of love, many of them.' YxYY
1. Waking Dreams

A.N: the first of a long series of horror/romance/supernatural/angst one-shots.

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh or the Disney Anastasia song 'Once upon a December'

**Blood and Roses **

**Waking Dreams**

The music box played over and over the same tune, the same song, the same tinkling tiny bells that had been Yuugi's favourite sound in the world.

Over and over the figures rose from the lifted lid, twirled together in a dance that never ended, a lord and his lady made of bright, bright gold spinning on the turning carousel that was their existence.

Again and again the key was turned, the mechanism rewound, the clockwork ticking softly under the sound of the bells. The moments of awful silence when the tune faded made him fumble with the brass key on the back, made him think of the silence in the house.

Then the tune would begin again and his ears would be filled with the happy chime of childish joy, it made him smile in a twisted bitterly pleased way.

The music lied.

The golden figures had long turned dull with the tarnish of time.

And Yami never saw the light of day again.

The room was heavy with age, moats of dust flittered like dying butterflies around the stale air of his single room, thick heavy velvet curtains covered the narrow windows, sometimes the wooden floor creaked of its own accord.

He was sat, shoulders hunched as always in the same stiff backed oak chair that he always did, that he always would. His eyes were devoid of anything, his skin was sunken and stretched, the hunger roared within him.

The music kept playing.

There was a bed, by the far wall. Four-poster. King size. He had always given Yuugi the best of everything. The mattress had been soft, springy; it used to smell of their passion and their perfume. Now it smelt of musky aged wood.

The sheets were crumpled and unmade the same as they had been for years now.

The sheets were stained with old blood, once red, darkened rusty with time.

It didn't smell of blood, not anymore.

There was a rug on the floor. Deep red and gold. Yuugi had liked it, had said it was perfect. Outside the world carried on. Sometimes, during the day, Yami would pause to listen to the horses pulling their carriages, the merchants shouting in the market, a baby crying two rooms down. No one came to the house anymore, they all knew about the cursed man that resided within.

The floor was littered with broken things. Pictures fallen from the walls, the paint peeling off their frames. A porcelain figurine from the drawing table lay in delicate shards by his feet, its once softly frozen face scattered across the floor a single blue eye remained intact, staring blankly at the wooden ceiling. The oil lamp, thankfully empty and unlit, lay where it and fallen and rolled in a corner, now coated in the designs of the spiders.

During summer the room grew stifling hot, in winter bitterly cold. That was how he measured time.

The bells began to slow. The embracing figures grew sluggish.

The dreams still came to him. Only they couldn't be called dreams because he never slept. A sweet smile, a softer touch, a laugh brighter then sunshine, skin silkier then moonlight, eyes that twinkled like a thousand violet stars.

He didn't react now like he used to, he new they weren't real. Just memories, just mirages, just fantasies.

Yami knew he was mad.

One hundred years he had walked this earth. And not once had there been one like Yuugi, never one so simple in complexity, never one so kind in nature, never one that gave like Yuugi did.

He regretted it. But regret was not the word; there was no word strong enough. What he had done he could not clearly remember, what had made him do it even fuzzier. He just remembered he had been angry, he just remembered frustration. A friend had angered him, another enemy had gotten away, and he hadn't had time to eat. He came home to where Yuugi had been waiting as usual…

He didn't remember. Only screams, only blind desire and hunger, only the blood in his mouth had mattered.

The music slowed to a stop.

His fingers hastened, jerking stiffly, to rewind the key. The silence was defining. His skin was like parchment dried in the sun. The purple stones embossed in silver ivy glinted in the lack of light as he twisted the box again to lay it in his palms, resting on his lap. On his dusty old black dress trousers.

There was a vision with him now. A perfect stolen image of his perfect beautiful lover, it smiled with Yuugi's mouth, it knelt by his side on Yuugi's knees, and it held his dead hands with Yuugi's hands. He could feel the touch like it was real, it was warm and soft enough to be Yuugi's skin. But he dreamt.

As the tinkling bells began again the image began to sing with Yuugi's silver voice.

_Dancing bears_

_Painted wings_

_Things I almost remember_

_And a song someone sings_

_Once upon a December_

_Someone holds me safe and warm_

_Horses prance through a silver storm_

_Figures dancing gracefully_

_Across my memory_

He felt for an instant, warm again, whole again. The voice was perfectly real, a perfect imitation. But he couldn't get carried away, he couldn't. This had happened before. This had caught him so long ago, the fist time they met Yami hadn't seen Yuugi. He'd heard him singing this song and had followed the enchanting sound like a bird follows the sun.

The image of Yuugi smiled in his song, tightening his imaginary grip on Yami's hands.

_Someone holds me safe and warm_

_Horses prance through a silver storm_

_Figures dancing gracefully_

_Across my memory_

_Far away_

_Long ago_

_Glowing dim as an ember_

_Things my heart used to know_

_Things it yearns to remember_

The vision's hands moved upwards from his own touching his cheeks with gentle caresses, pausing as the bells slowed again, looking at him. And finally, slowly, it finished its song as the last notes of the music box faded away.

_And a song someone sings _

_Once upon a December_

The touch left him then, slipping away as the song did. And Yami felt his dead heart break into even smaller pieces as the image faded away, standing and disappearing.

He would always remember that song, the words that went with the music box's tune.

He twisted the key again to rewind the mechanism. To fill this haunted house with its futile attempt at joy. To fill his ears with its whisper of old and never forgotten love.

Yami knew he was mad.

And always would the music box play.

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A.N: Written in an hour rather then English coursework... well I like it anyway. -Yawn- bed now.

You can look at this however you want but I wrote it so it could mean two different scenarios, one a little nicer the other. If you want to know what the two meanings are I will send them to you... through a reply if you review -sly laugh-.

Don't expect the next story soon, I have too much to do. But I can tell you it's werewolf orientated.

Review Please!


	2. Look to the Moon

Look to the Moon: Summery – Yami, curious about Yuugi's periodic disappearances, follows his lover into the woods on the night of the full moon. He really should have stayed in bed. (Think of this as a kind of warm up session for 'Antecedent', the fic that will be coming after I finish 'Phoenix's Ashes').

Well this would have been up on Thursday evening but due to ffn being a bitch and not letting me load any documents it was delayed, by far longer then I would have wanted. And then it wouldn't even let me complain, 'coz it kept coming back as 'page cannot be displayed'! Seriously, for four days! Right then, this is just a silly little thing really with not much point or plot, but I hope you all enjoy it none the less.

**Blood and Roses**

**Look to the Moon**

Yami frowned as he opened his eyes to find the bed void of its usual second occupant. Then he growled as he heard the front door ease closed, the lock clicking in place, Yuugi was at it _again_? It was time he got to the bottom of this. Yuugi might claim he became restless on some nights and needed to get out for some air but there was no reason he couldn't wake Yami and tell him he was going out! God damn it he'd told Yuugi he didn't mind going out with him for air! He didn't like the thought of his little lover out there in the dark on his own, he didn't mind this little quirk of Yuugi's and he understood that Yuugi didn't want to wake him but for heavens sake why always on a full moon?

He wondered if there truly was anything to be said about the traditional meaning for lunatic?

The green numbers on the digital clock flashed midnight as he scrambled into the first clothes he found on the floor and ran down the stairs to slip out of the front door after Yuugi. For a moment he was scared he'd lost the smaller one, but his fears were settled a moment later when he reached the end of the driveway to see Yuugi's hair bob around the corner to his left. The park? He jogged after him, careful to keep enough of a distance so that Yuugi couldn't hear but so Yami could still see him. Yuugi had good hearing; sometimes, after three years of being together, Yami was still surprised by him. Another reason why he loved him so much.

He hid behind the brick corner of a block of flats when Yuugi reached the park gates, they were closed at night and so Yami wondered what Yuugi was going to do, surely he was just going to jog past them and carry on down the road… he slunk further down when Yuugi looked over his shoulder, as if checking to see whether he was being watched. He cursed to himself quietly, is this what he had sunken to? Stalking? If Yuugi ever found out about this he would be heartbroken thinking Yami didn't trust him or something. Yuugi turned back when he didn't see anyone but Yami looked down for a moment at the asphalt pavement, what was Yuugi doing to have to be so suspicious? This was the safest neighbourhood for miles (which was the only reason Yami let him continue this); he shouldn't have to stop for so long to search for watchers.

Yami looked back up when he heard the quietist of thumps from where his lover was… he blinked confused, or where his lover had _been_. He shot up from his hiding place, scared that something had happened to Yuugi, knowing he had missed something for him to be there one second and gone the next. He frowned to himself when, after a frantic few seconds of looking up and down the silent roads he saw Yuugi's small figure vanishing into the park. Yami frowned, the gates were still firmly locked and there was no way Yuugi would have managed to both open and close them in the short time Yami had looked away… he jogged up to the entrance, perhaps Yuugi had squeezed himself between the iron bars? He had an uncanny flexibility after all. Shaking his head and reminding himself to ask about that later Yami realized that Yuugi could be far away by now. He had to catch up.

Finding a foothold on the low brick wall surrounding the park he scrambled over the bars that stood upright from the top of the wall, his coat, long enough to brush his knees, got in the way but eventually Yami managed to land with some grace on the other side. Not wanting to waste a minute he brushed himself off quickly and began running down the path he thought Yuugi had taken, once again wondering what the hell it was he was actually doing here. Was he really just making sure Yuugi was safe? Or was he jealous that Yuugi might not be telling him something? That he was missing out on a part of his beloved's life no matter how small? He wasn't sure himself.

The sudden haunting sound of a howl made him stop dead. He turned, for a moment fear overcame his rationality and he stared into the trees on either side of him frantically. As if expecting a pack of hunting wolves to come out of the darkness and jump at him, claws and teeth shining and ready to tear him apart. The park was dark at this time of night, only the faint glow of the city lights (now far away) and the light of the full moon illuminating the area poorly, exaggerated shadows and the wind rustling the leaves were enough to make anyone start believing in the supernatural. The howl faded away, the last notes lost on the cool breeze, and Yami shook himself, it was most likely only a dog lost in the park. You didn't get wolves in _this_ part of the country.

When he turned his head to continue running his gaze caught a flash of a distinctive style of hair and he smiled. Yuugi was only a few seconds ahead of him, jogging casually along the path below the one he had taken. His smile widened, he knew where these paths lead, he could jump Yuugi and surprise him. Yami continued up the slight incline to where the path would end at the point of a small cliff, only a few meters high, and covered in trees. Below there would be a clearing in the trees just a little hidden from the path Yuugi was taking, he could slide down the grassy embankments to the left of the cliff and hide in the clearing until Yuugi ran by.

But when Yami reached the end of his path he found that there was no need to slide down. Yuugi seemed to have strayed off the path and into that very same small gap in the trees that would make for a very romantic make-out scene. He grinned and crouched down behind a tree trunk, waiting for Yuugi to finish whatever it was he was doing in the shadows over there, he couldn't quite make it out.

Yami smiled down at the clearing, knowing he had finally caught up with Yuugi, and was about to shout down to him to catch him out. It was time he finished this game. But something made his voice dry up in his throat: why was Yuugi naked? Yami could see Yuugi had folded his clothes neatly in a pile just under the shade of an overhanging rock, his pale skin caught the moonlight and made Yami shiver but his confusion and curiosity overweighed his desire. He watched as Yuugi moved to stand in the very centre of the clearing, his back to him, and tilt his head back to look up at the moon. He spread his arms, letting its full silver light bathe him entirely.

Yami was becoming severely worried now, was Yuugi a little less balanced then he'd thought? He couldn't _really_ be crazy could he?

He resolved to stay quiet and see what happened. And for a long moment nothing did. But then he noticed that Yuugi's breathing had definitely picked up, hyperventilating almost, his shoulders and chest heaving with the amounts of air he was sucking in. It was as if he'd run all the way up Everest and Yami found himself to be thoroughly confused, in all the time he'd known Yuugi he was never out of breath (apart from during and after sex). They'd once jogged all the way into town together when the car had stopped working and while Yami was panting when they reached their destination Yuugi looked as calm as if he'd just stood up. Only a thin sheen of sweat a sign that he'd been running at all. So this was definitely weird.

It only got weirder from there.

Yami watched as Yuugi's hands clenched, his fingers curling into imitation claws, the muscles on his back strained visibly and for a minute Yami was afraid Yuugi was going into some kind of fit. The moonlight seemed to become brighter then, almost looking as if it were _clinging_ to his lover's body. It was another few seconds before Yami actually realised that it was _Yuugi _who'd begun glowing with a faint white light. But… that couldn't be right… people didn't glow. Yami resolved to get at least eight hours of sleep when he got home.

But what happened next insured he wouldn't be sleeping for the next week. A grey shadow began spreading over Yuugi's body, starting from the base of his neck, as it spread further over his body it became darker and darker until his skin was covered head to foot with a jet black substance. Yami couldn't see his body anymore when suddenly Yuugi knelt pulling in his arms and curling into an almost ball, he leant forwards trying to see what was happening but it was impossible, all that was visible was a black blob against the shadowy night.

It was a good couple of minutes before anything else happened. Yami's heartbeat was frantic with worry for Yuugi, his mouth dry with a strange kind of anticipation, but he kept quiet, needing to know what happened at the end of this strange ritual. And then the black blob uncurled itself, but it was a good deal smaller then before. Yami's eyes strained, struggling to see what Yuugi was doing, was this some trick of the eye?

And then the blob moved more fully into the moonlight. Yami fought back a gasp that threatened to grow into a kind of scream. In his lovers place stood a jet-black wolf. Not a human, not Yuugi, but a wolf! Yami froze, not breathing, not even thinking, and stared at the creature in the clearing with wide unfocused eyes. The wolf shook itself like a dog shaking water from its fur and looked around, its tail swaying gently. Then it tilted its head back, its ebony black muzzle pointed to the moon as it let loose a howl. Yami's hands clenched convulsively, it felt as if the blood in his very veins had cessed to flow. His throat constricted, he fought back the urge to retch in his horror. The howl faded in the air just as the other had and Yami chanced a glance down to see the wolf dart out of the clearing, shoot across the path and vanish into the trees on the other side.

For a long time Yami sat there, sucking air into his burning lungs and trying hard not to think about what he had just seen. But he just couldn't block out the image of the wolf emerging from Yuugi's shadow. He fell back against the tree trunk, his fingers pulling hard at the blades of grass under him. This wasn't happening, he was dreaming, he had to be dreaming! Yuugi wasn't… he wasn't…

"Oh, god." He knew Yuugi was hiding something, he'd just thought it was something essentially trivial. But this! This was… it was way beyond anything he could deal with right now. If ever.

His lover wasn't even human.

Stumbling to his feet with the help of the trees support Yami began to run back the way he had come, every few steps he tripped clumsily, not really paying attention to where his feet were taking him, not noticing the sting of salted tears on his cheeks. It didn't matter anymore. The pain in his heart overtook everything. Not paying attention backfired on him, however, when he finally regained enough of his senses to realise he had taken a wrong turn. And gotten himself lost. The park looked so different at night, every tree, every stone on the path or leaf caught in the wind looked ominous and foreboding.

He stopped for a moment, a thin trickle of sweat running down his brow. Oh god what was he going to do now, he couldn't go back to the house, he couldn't meet up with Yuugi after what he had just seen, what he had just discovered.

Yami felt his blood freeze at the low growl he heard from behind him. Whipping around in fear he gasped at the sight that met him. A great hulking beast of a wolf stalked, slowly, threateningly out of a thicket of hawthorn. It's grey fur dirtied by patches of brown, its yellow teeth bared, snarling, eyes sewn like shiny green sequins on the night.

"N-nice wolf. Stay away now, shoo." Yami said nervously, his hands raised in defence and surrender. He took a slow step back, fighting desperately the urge to run madly in the opposite direction. Running wasn't going to help him now; it would just entice the wolf into running after him.

It leapt to the right, Yami scrabbled backwards, his foot caught on something and he fell hard onto his backside. Hissing in pain Yami looked up to see the wolf hadn't moved it had only feigned right. It was playing with him. Yami's heart rate was increasing fast, despite his effort to control his panic. Was this thing someone else that pretended to be human? Is this what Yuugi would do to him if they met at night? Did Yuugi even love him? Really and truly as he'd always claimed? His hand clenched around something on the ground, it felt smooth and cool, but he couldn't look to see what it was for fear of what the wolf would do.

Its broad grey shoulders shook with something Yami recognised eventually to be laughter. So it was a supernatural? He scowled at it without realising what he was doing, this had been far too confusing a night to bother about things like species difference. It stopped laughing when it noticed the lack of terror in Yami's face. It huffed, then growled, Yami's body sent a wave of adrenaline through his blood stream, urging him to run. He didn't have time to move before it lunged at him, claws flashing, jaw wide open and revealing teeth sharper then knives. It went for his throat. He shouted in panic, in desperation Yami fisted his hand, the one that was clutching something, and threw his arms across himself for instinctual protection. He felt its fur damp and coarse against the skin of his hands, felt its breath wet and hot on his face, saw images of his time with Yuugi flash before his closed eyelids.

But then he heard the wolf yelp loudly in pain. Its weight jumped off him. Yami blinked open his eyes, confused. He lowered his arms to see the grey wolf biting at its flank as if trying to get rid of a flea. The skin was smoking ever so slightly. Yami looked down at his hand in shock. Clenched in his fist was a teardrop shaped silver necklace, dirtied with specks of dirt and scuffmarks, the thin silver chain was snapped. Someone must have dropped it. His befuddled brain kicked itself into action. Silver! Werewolves were weak against silver! So that's why Yuugi preferred stainless steel in his jewellery and cutlery. A sharp stab of pain shot through him at the thought of Yuugi but he pushed it down, it wasn't time to brood.

The wolf recovered before he did. It darted forward and nipped the wrist of the hand with the necklace, only nipping because he missed biting the hand off entirely. Yami gasped in pain and dropped his lifeline. Again it lunged at him and this time Yami knew there was nothing he could do to save himself.

But just as the wolf was only inches away from ripping out his throat a black blur collided heavily with its side. Intercepting the wolf mid-leap and knocking him to the ground. The grey wolf looked dazed for a moment, picking itself off the ground with some confusion. But Yami was too busy staring at the second wolf that had appeared out of nowhere and was currently stood three feet in front of him, growling in the other's direction.

A pitch-black wolf, its muzzle tinted dark ebony. Yami tried to keep his breathing controlled, he wasn't sure whether he wanted to hyperventilate or stop breathing all together. He was no good with animals but even an idiot could identify this one with the one he had seen… he fought back the image. The grey wolf snarled, its lip curling back over its gums. The other was unfazed, returning the warning snarl without hesitation. Yami, however, was worried. Even with his befuddled, overstressed brain he could see that the grey wolf was much larger then the black one. The smaller was streamlined and sleeker, it looked like it could outrun a cheetah, but it didn't look like it could win a head on conflict with the bulky mass of the other. But wolves weren't stupid, the black one had to know what his chances were of winning, so that meant…

They fought viciously, biting and clawing at each other with a savage abandonment. Snarls and growling echoed into the night. Yami scrabbled backwards, unable to muster the strength, physically or emotionally, to stand or even look away. He felt his heartbeat like a fierce drumming against his ribs, felt pain at the sight of the injuries being inflicted on the black wolf.

As suddenly as it started, it was over. The black wolf fell as the grey one vanished into the forest, bleeding severely and leaving a red trail behind it.

It was silent for a moment. The sound of the injured animal's breathing and Yami's tripping heartbeat the only sounds in the night. Yami stared at the black wolf with wide eyes: it had saved him! Its flank was matted with blood from where the other wolf had bit it; one of its forepaws was twisted strangely, broken? But that was not what Yami was interested in. There would be only one wolf in the entire world that would fight for a human's life, his life, at the risk of its own.

Trembling finely Yami moved so he could sit next to the poor creature. He dropped the pendant into his pocket so it couldn't hurt him further and reached out to see if the wolf was even conscious still. Hesitantly his fingers buried themselves in the thick fur of the wolf's scruff, it was soft and the skin underneath was radiating warmth, was that a good sign or not? He froze when the wolf moved its head with what sounded distinctly like a half-hearted growl, but strangely enough he didn't feel even an ounce of fear. Yami saw its eyelids crack open for the barest of moments glimpsing a flash of purple before they closed again in pain. He felt a wave of inexplicable relief flood him, he laughed quietly in the hysterical manner only a near death experience induced, there was no mistaking those eyes. He hadn't changed, not really.

"Yuugi…" his other hand hovered awkwardly over the wolf's muzzle, wanting to pet him but wondering whether Yuugi would take it the wrong way, the last thing Yuugi needed was to think he was being patronised. He felt his confusion melt away, his physical and emotional weariness was pushed to one side, Yuugi was injured, he needed help, and that was all that mattered. At the name the wolf's eyes shot open, bright purple filled with a mixture of disbelief and fear, Yami felt the body tense under his hand.

Yami held Yuugi's gaze for a long time, trying to convey that he wasn't angry or disappointed of horrified, trying to show him that he still loved him despite how awkward this could become. Yuugi dropped his gaze first with a look Yami couldn't decipher and began trying to stand. It was painful enough for Yami to see his little one suffering but watching him trembling with the effort of simply standing was more then he could bear. He muttered his name over and over wanting to reach out and touch him again but almost too fearful to do so, wanting to help but not knowing what he could do. Animal care certainly was not his forte. But when Yuugi tried to take his first step by putting pressure on the injured paw he couldn't help but wince and reach out for him when the wolf yelped and fell into Yami's chest. The blood dirtied his jacket but he didn't give much of a shit when Yuugi pulled away almost harshly and tried to walk forward again, this time hobbling with his forepaw held in the air.

He sighed, "Oh no you don't." And reached out to grasp Yuugi's rather fluffy tail and pull him back down. The wolf made a strange noise of surprise when he was pulled back onto his hunches, blinking stupidly for a moment as he tried to figure out what just happened. Yami smiled, he wasn't stupid he knew why Yuugi wanted to get away. Moving to sit in front of the wolf he held his muzzle in both hands and forced Yuugi to look at him. Yuugi's eyes expressed a mild discomfort, obviously having Yami touch him when he was like this felt a little weird. But Yami ignored it and spoke slowly, clearly, making sure Yuugi understood, he wasn't even sure he _could_ understand but, hey, nothing tried nothing gained he supposed.

"Okay Yuugi I will admit then when I followed you out the house tonight I didn't quite expect a secret _this_ big but that doesn't mean I'm going to leave you." Yuugi blinked and Yami fought back a smirk at the look, oh Yuugi understood all right. "Honestly you just saved my life! Like I'm going to abandon you now!" His shoulders slumped, he sighed, "I'm sorry for betraying your trust in me, I just didn't think following you would lead to something like this, I just wanted to make sure you wouldn't get jumped by some serial rapist. Forgive me?" He finished somewhat lamely.

Yuugi looked at him disbelievingly for a moment _Yami was asking him to forgive him, after _his_ secret!_ He huffed after a moment, even now humans confused him, not that he would ever voice that thought to Yami. But now there was, unfortunately, only one way he could show his forgiveness…

Yami blinked when Yuugi leant forwards and licked his cheek, nuzzling his wet nose affectionately into the hair behind Yami's ear. Yami blinked again, this was surreal. Not only was he sat with a wolf in his arms, but he was sat with a wolf in his arms that was actually his lover… yeah, he definitely needed those eight hours.

"Right then," he stated, "how are we gonna get you home?" Yuugi made a move, an attempt to slink away, he pulled him back, "Oh no you don't, we're getting you to a doctor. That wrist is clearly broken, you are bleeding and I can't carry you like this. Way too heavy." Yami avoided calling it a paw, despite the fact that it currently was, this was still a little too awkward for that. Yuugi huffed out a sigh and collapsed painfully on Yami's knees, Yami understood the point he was trying to make, 'what do you expect me to do then?'

"You know you could – I could carry you if – " Yami's sentence fizzled out, still too awkward to say, Yuugi didn't react to the words, just twitched his pointed ear towards the trees as if listening for something. Yami looked down at the broken joint, his hand resting on the fur of the slim foreleg just above the injury, he could feel the rise in heat on the skin across that area, Yuugi was doing well in handling this pain. Then suddenly he understood why Yuugi was reluctant to switch forms, the human body must be much less capable of handling such injuries quietly, he would be in less pain if he stayed this way. But that wouldn't make it any better. He tried to come up with an alternate solution.

"If I tore up my shirt I could bind it pretty well – " again he didn't finish, Yuugi's growl cut him off. Yami sighed, "Alright I won't touch. But, Yuugi, you are going to have to… do something…" Yuugi's head shifted until his eyes were hidden in Yami's elbow, the arm bent to help support him, reluctant. Yami drew in a breath, "You want me to… do you need privacy?"

Yuugi's head shifted again, a no, Yami opened his mouth to say something encouraging but didn't get the chance when a faint silver light began penetrating the wolf's fur from the inside, like tiny shafts of light through the holes of a sieve. He watched, fascinated and (still) a little unsure, as the black fur slid away like dark water and vanished into the shadowy ground beneath, falling away from the body and even between Yami's own fingers, though he could feel nothing but air as it passed. For a long moment he panicked, thinking something bad was happening to Yuugi, but then the light faded as the last of the black fur soaked into the shadows and in his arms was the body of a young man, not a wolf.

Yuugi groaned in newly discovered pain and rolled over so he was on his back, draped over his lover's arms, rather then his injured stomach. Yami smiled down at him, happy, almost ecstatic that he was back to 'normal'. Yuugi mock glared and said tiredly, "You realise, of course, that I'm going to have to blame you for this?"

Yami hugged him closer, Yuugi's head resting on his shoulder, "Blame me all you want love, you're still not going to get rid of me that easily." They were silent for a moment, Yuugi trembling slightly in his arms, still perfectly naked and now cold in the autumn night (though perhaps that wasn't the only reason for his shaking). Yami pulled off his long coat, draping it around Yuugi, avoiding the injuries, and hefted them to their feet, Yuugi still in his arms. Yuugi whimpered. Yami shushed him, kissing him sympathetically, as they began finding their way out of the park.

"You need to get to the hospital." Yami said when they were in sight of the gates.

"No." Yuugi protested immediately.

"Yes, I don't know how deep that bite wound is and it's in a nasty place, and your wrist will heal like that if you don't get it set." Yuugi slipped awkwardly between the bars as Yami scrambled, once again, over the fence, not skinny enough to even try squeezing through. He picked Yuugi up again immediately after, ignoring the smaller's protests that he could walk fine on his own now.

"No Yami," Yuugi argued, "I can't go to the hospital. They use silver medical instruments there, and besides, my blood readings are too weird to be considered normal. They'd stick me in a lab."

"Oh." Yami stopped walking, now unsure where to go.

"There's a special doctor." Yuugi breathed painfully, "A couple of blocks away, he… he know us and… he won't ask questions…"

Yami nodded, deciding that this night had been far too strange to start fighting against the flow now, and followed Yuugi's directions. The small nip on his wrist twinged painfully, like an annoying paper cut. He felt something similar to fear and excitement in his heart, remembering the other stories he'd heard. "He… that other wolf bit me…"

Yuugi's laugh was quiet and breathy, weak, "Doesn't work that way love. Myth. Your either born one or not." A soft smile, "Don't worry, I don't think he had anything contagious. If he did I've got it too."

Yami laughed a little, "You need to work on the encouragement thing."

Yuugi's smile grew, "Love you too."

It was a little weird. And it was more then a little different. But Yami found himself settling into his newly acquired knowledge with an almost disturbing ease. He wasn't sure whether he was disappointed or not that the werewolf's bite would do nothing more to him then cause a scab, he did want to be part of _every_ corner of Yuugi's life after all. But he supposed he might just be able to fall back a little on this one, let Yuugi handle himself like he'd proven he could do just before. They were a little awkward in the morning, Yuugi a little cranky in his pain, the doctor had patched him up but he wasn't able to snap his fingers and make the injuries just go away. But Yami knew that one day Yuugi would be ready to talk about it properly with him, would feel comfortable enough to really tell his lover about his world. And Yami had to smile when he thought about it, if their relationship had not only survived something like this, but actually gotten stronger, then it was certain that this was the real thing. All they had to do now was finalise it with the marriage. He wondered how Yuugi would react if Yami proposed next time there was a full moon…

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So. Hopefully there weren't too many problems with that, there are probably a few typos because I haven't read this through as thoroughly as I usually do the others but ahh well.

Now dear readers, do we want the next one-shot to be orientated around:

a) Felines (and/or werecats)

b) Canines (and/or werewolves)

c) Vampires

d) Spirits (including fairies and the like), ghosts, and shamans

e) Simple fluffy magical-related (i.e witches, sorcerers) romance

f) Something completely different including sci-fi, ufo-ish kind of stuff

g) OR a combination of any of the above

Quite the choice there huh? You may decide, as I have kind of started a lot of them so they are currently sat as little drabbles on my computer. Don't mind which one I write next, they're all pecking my head right now.

Review Please!


	3. Sweet Angel

**AN: **I know, I know I'm supposed to be doing that sci-fi one-shot but really this started out as a single paragraph of cute rambling - then turned into this fully fledged (albeit short) block of weird romantic angst. It only took an hour or so and the sci-fi one shot is hitting walls repeatedly so I'm putting this up first. Hope you aren't too disappointed and this is at least half-decent.

**Summery:** I know you are an angel my darling. I know that we can never be. But I love you and you me, does that count for nothing. Please sweet angel, let us create the world together.

**Blood and Roses**

**Sweet Angel**

I am a knight. A powerful commander whom no one has ever even attempted to tame or control. My bravery and honour won me this title. It was my strength and mine alone that won our kingdom's war, I am rich and influential, I am the lion of midnight that tares apart my enemies. I have so many women willing to be my wife that I have long become dizzy with the numbers.

I am everything to this kingdom.

I am nothing to you.

No, do not turn to me with that expression, I am right. All my wealth, all my hard earned glory, all my physical and political power… means noting to you. I am just another soul stripped bare and vulnerable before your eyes, what I posses in this world will never bring me closer to you. I have everything but I have nothing. I have women throwing themselves at my feet but my heart is cold to them. I am already in love. In love with my own guardian angel.

Do you remember when we were young, little one? When we were children? No one could understand why I spoke to thin air, why I spent so many hours in the gardens and woods by myself. We loved each other then as only children can. You let me hold you then though it meant nothing of what you fear from me now.

Do not look at me like that. You make me wish for death with that look so soft and sad. Do you remember how we grew together? You stayed the same for so many years, a cherub with wings so small and bright with white down they were barely suited for flight. I grew steadily and so had hit adolescence and almost surpassed it before it happened. Puberty confused you didn't it love? It still does. The way it changes a human, you often asked why I had changed so much. But I remember the day you grew, I had reached the end step of the altar at the centre of my father's hedge maze and turned to see where you where. The look on your face of surprise made me fear that you may be hurt although you had never so much as scraped yourself before. And then came the light that blurred my vision for days afterwards. I saw you then as you flew from the nest, as you fledged and your body grew into a figure a god would envy, and I felt a stirring within myself I had never felt before.

You were stood so still upon that step, the light streaming from behind you, your new wings twice as tall as your new older body catching the breeze so each feather glimmered with diamonds. And you landed upon that top stair, having been lifted by the light, and stared at me as if you had never seen me before. What was I to you in that moment? Just another human or someone you always swore you would love? You changed so much in that moment, I saw a new person within those eyes and for the first time I _felt_ human before you, I felt the difference between us with such an acute pain that I wept, you remember those tears, for I realised then, truly, what you were.

I know you are an angel my darling. I know that we can never be. But I love you and you me, does that count for nothing. Please sweet angel, let us create the world together. Let the sun revolve around us and all the light in the world bathe you in a purity I have seen but may never touch or spoil. You dance away from me with that sorrowful look every time I reach for you, if it hurts you so much then why must we be like this, why can I not simply be allowed to hold your hand? Just to touch the skin of your cheek for but a single moment? Would my desires cause you to be banished from heaven my love? I would never try to taint you if that is what you fear. Yes, I know you trust me, you are incapable of distrust after all, but do you fear what the Great Ones will do if they discover your infatuation with a mortal? You cannot lie to me. You fear the consequences of loving me, this is why you dance away on slim silent feet every time I try, every time I reach. It hurts.

Yes, I know you love me. But angels love everything, how I am I to know if I am special to you? How am I to know if I mean more than any other human on the street?

Please my darling heart, do not cry. Your tears break me apart. All I wish to do is hold you. Is that so much to ask? To touch my lips to your skin? But you are right, I should not ask this of you, you have given me so much I have no right to take more. You fear me as much as you love me, I know my name means darkness, love, but you keep that darkness at bay. As long as I have that I have everything I need.

But this is goodbye isn't it?

Hmm, do not look so shocked sweet heart, I know you like I know my own hand. You have come to say goodbye. A human my age should not be able to see what only children's eyes may glimpse. I should have stopped seeing you when I started to become an adult, I should not have been able to watch you as you became an ascended angel, but I have, by your grace. After all I have seen of humanity I am far from a child with the innocence needed to glimpse angels and indeed I have noticed how faint you have become to me. Your light, I know, has not dimmed but my eyes are no longer able to view such purity. It is only your grace that keeps you within my vision still.

But they want you to stop. The Old Ones. The Great Ones. They fear what I will do, what my love for you, my desire for you, will make me do. They love you and you are in danger from me, though you trust me. What would happen if you were to become tainted? Would we both die and fall to damnation? I have killed in battle more then enough to grant me my sentence, without you my future would be grim indeed. And so you will stop pushing your power so I may see you and I will forever be left with a memory.

You will see me everyday.

But I am never going to see you again.

You fade and flicker, my love. Is it time already? Can you not stay but a moment more?

No, you are right. The longer you stay the more pain we feel. My heart already is dying with my ribs. You will stay close won't you sweet angel? Care for me? When I speak you will listen? You will guide me somehow?

Of course you will. You love me. But this is not truly farewell after all is it? I will see you again. On my dying day. You will be the one to carry me to heaven. You will not allow them to judge me without your light stood at my side will you?

I love you. Will you not just touch my hand? Just once for a moment? A final gift I may see you to thank you for. Thank you. I had forgotten what your skin felt like, like silk and warmth and love. You fade now, the tears still fall from your eyes, I hope that one day I will be enough of a man to hold them back for you, as it is I cannot even hold back my own.

Your touch vanishes from the physical world and you fade from my sight completely. Though I know you are still there, I can feel you there and as long as I can feel that I know I will live.

Goodbye my light. Hikari Motou. My Yuugi. I will see you again.

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**AN: **Inspired by a Devientart piece I saw. This, like I said, was a ramble that span out of control. In apology I'll give you a lo-down on what the sci-fi one could be. It's either going to be a long one called 'Ambassador' staring a snarky human Yuugi who has been accidentally impregnated by the cluelessy sweet alien Yami who didn't realise having sex with him would lead to impregnation (what with the species difference and everything) or another one I haven't named where Yuugi discovers his life has been a lie, that he isn't human, and the alien hanging off his arm that just won't take a hint and leave him alone (-cough-Yami-cough-) is actually his mate chosen at birth. They are both kind of light hearted comedy-ish (but not really because I suck badly at writing comedy) but they are also sat stubbornly on my computer and not going anywhere. Please forgive me. At this rate it might even be a completely different one I haven't thought of yet!

Review and I may include a lemon in one of the up-coming ones!


	4. Follow Me, Follow Me

**AN: **Yay! This hasn't been sitting on my computer for the past six months... honest. Okay so maybe it has and I was just far too lazy to finish it until now. Because I wanted something up for Halloween and this was the closest 'Blood and Roses' oneshot I had to being completed.

I'm afraid those of you waiting for that sci-fi oneshot I promised will be waiting a long, long while. It quite simply isn't working, and when I looked at it last I very graciously realised (as in turning the air blue in record time) that it actually doen't have a... what do you call those things... Plot! Yes. It had/has no plot and until I find one it's going nowhere. Sorry.

Warnings: Much lovely OCness in this. I love Yuugi when he's being all misterious and kick-ass and dominent and perhaps slightly over the top in character change and (goes on...).

Summery - "Go on. See he's been checking you out all night." "I don't think he-" "There look he's leaving out the back door! Did you see that look?! He wants you to follow..."

**Blood and Roses**

**Follow Me, Follow Me**

The night was, in a word, gorgeous.

The air was cool, the stars shone bright, the moon was full.

And the music that surrounded him in it's intoxicating beat as exciting as the perfect strangers he danced with.

His friend grinned tipsily at him when he returned, nudging another tiny glass of perfectly clear liquid towards him. He watched the blue flame lick at the alcohol a few seconds more before blowing it out and downing it. The heat burning his throat, he hummed as the fire reached his chest, slipping slowly down to his stomach.

The flashing lights coming from the stage had never looked more attractive.

His friend pulled him down into the seat next to him, leaning heavily on the low table as he ignored the other's slightly incoherent protest and moving closer so he could be heard over the music without having to shout.

"You seen him yet?" the blond grinned.

He frowned, "Who?"

His friend nodded discreetly over at the bar, he turned his eyes, trying to see without looking obvious. But he knew who the blond meant. That gorgeous creature sat alone by the bar, occasionally conversing coolly with the bar staff but never once moving from that spot. Turing down those that asked him to dance with a once-over then a subtle un-embarrassing refusal. His dark clothing seeming to suck the light towards him, make it glint off his silver gothic punk jewellery, inky black liner framing eyes as mysterious as the dark side of the moon.

And long white elegant fingers curved flawlessly around a delicate crystal glass of red, red wine.

"He's been watching you since we came in." Jounouchi said, a sly smirk crossing his features.

"What? You think he's interested? In me!?" He wasn't stupid despite his modesty, he knew just how many people, if asked, would lie with him tonight. He heard the whistles when he walked down the street in even his most sensible clothes. But the guy by the bar? "_Way_ outa my league Jou, don't even _think_ of tricking me into this one."

Jounouchi raised an eyebrow, "Don't tell me you haven't noticed him watching you?"

He scowled, "How could I miss eyes like that?" he asked a little bitterly. God if there was even a chance in hell…

"Look I'll prove it to ya." Jounouchi reasoned impishly, "We've run out of drinks right? Go to the bar and get some more. Don't be too discreet. Stand close but without touching. Give him a _reason_ to stare."

He frowned again, but his friend wasn't going to let this go without a fight, so he sighed and gave in. It wouldn't be too bad right? He'd flirted with countless people that should have been out of his league and ended up in the palm of his hand.

He was stood by the high marble table before he knew it and bit his lip at the proximity, but didn't look. He didn't even have to talk to him right? He was just here to order drinks. He began to fish the yen out of his back pocket, waiting for the barman to finish mixing his latest concoction of an early death in a sweet tasting liquid when he heard the voice.

"How's your night?"

Strangely light, pleasant, warm. He looked up, thrown off balance at the blunt address, and could only stare. He hadn't realised just how close he had come, only a few inches between them. But for once the figure wasn't looking at him, rather at the half empty glass in his hand. Perhaps he had misheard and it was someone else who spoke?

But then the young man looked up from under his coal black lashes and dark eyes of a mesmerising colour met his own, a colour that should have been impossible for any human to posses.

They flashed as he smiled.

And despite his experience, his talent, Atemu felt his cheeks heat up.

He repeated his question. Atemu fumbled out an answer that he was good, having fun, it was a fine night.

The young man agreed, still smiling lightly as he lifted his glass to his lips, "Yes, a fine night indeed." Atemu saw a flash of pearly teeth, a pink tongue flickering as the red wine moistened those full red lips. He swallowed. Atemu felt an uncomfortable heat gathering in an area it really shouldn't be.

Atemu's drinks hit the table in front of him. He stumbled away from the bar but he felt the eyes that followed him, saw in his mind the smile that hadn't yet faded from the porcelain face.

He collapsed next to Jounouchi. The blond laughed and he felt the sudden urge to douse him in extremely flammable liquid. He settled for gulping down his drink, feeling the heat in his throat acutely as if someone had pierced the skin.

"Told you." His friend laughed, then nudged him in the side, "Go for it!"

Atemu suddenly saw an image of those slim fingers slipping past his waistband, of those dark eyes flashing in the heat of passion, of those red lips on his neck… "No."

Jounouchi looked as if he'd been slapped, "No? Jesus, 'Tem if you had drooled much more over there we'd all be swimmin' right now! You want him he wants you, why the hell not?"

"I wasn't drooling." Atemu muttered indignantly, hunching his shoulders. He was struck by an idea, "If I pretend I'm with someone perhaps he'll stop?"

Jounouchi raised an eyebrow, "Stop what? Wanting you?"

"Will you stop that!" Atemu hissed dangerously at him. Jounouchi looked at him questioningly. The frustrated college student turned back to his almost empty glass, rusty brown eyes reflected back at him, sharp defined features, naturally dark skin like caramel. Handsome, stunningly so, but not…

He got up to dance and leave Jounouchi brooding.

But he couldn't escape the gaze that followed him. The true reason he was avoiding any real flirting with the man of his dreams. Those eyes frightened him. Red wine mixed with purple irises. Amethyst. Not natural. But he knew even as he danced, even as he closed his eyes and forgot everything but the music and the warmth in his blood making his perception a little fuzzy, that he was falling. And hard. Without even realising he'd tripped.

Cool hands brushed across the exposed skin of his waist, his eyes shot open as arms snaked around his waist from behind but closed again when the figure began to move with him, flawlessly synchronised with the music's beat.

As the night got later, as the dances got slower, as the intoxication grew deeper, Atemu pushed himself back into the chest of the man stood behind him, tilted his head back so it could rest on his shoulder, closing his eyes with a sigh. Not noticing how the man's eyes flashed again as they roved over the exposed skin of his neck. Atemu's hands came to rest over the ones lying on his stomach, his skilled fingers barely noticing the pleasant chill on the other's skin. His heart fluttered in his chest as the stranger he met at the bar leaned over to whisper into his ear.

"What is your name?"

He told him.

"Family?"

A grandfather. The others all gone.

"College?"

The place, the name, what he was studying and why.

"Relationships?"

None. Not for a while.

The stranger smiled again, amethyst eyes darkening, this would be easier then he thought.

Atemu gasped quietly as soft, cool lips touched the heated skin of his neck. He wondered fleetingly how they could stay so cold through the heat of the room, of the wine, of the dancing. The moist tongue flickered across his skin, tasting it. And for some reason beyond his understanding he felt a flicker of fear at the feel of a sharp little nip that would otherwise have been pleasurable. A slight tickling sensation alerted him that the nip had pierced his skin but the stranger soothed the injury with his tongue before Atemu had time to think about it. He murmured apologies in that soft, fluid voice. Almost mournful. Almost apologising for things he had not yet done.

The arms withdrew from around his waist, soft skinned hands slipping off Atemu's hips from under his hotter fingers. He almost stumbled as the other backed away and he turned to see where the stranger had gone, but on the crowded dance floor, and through his alcohol-fuzzed vision, his dance partner had already merged hopelessly into the mass of moving bodies and blurring colours. A spell he wasn't aware of lifted and Atemu suddenly felt cold and exposed, a harsh reality brutally replacing the warm hidden world that had so embraced him before.

He stumbled back to the table where Jounouchi still sat, having watched it all with a lewd expression on his face. He snickered as Atemu looked determinedly at the low table, rubbing his arms to warm himself despite the heat of the room.

"Outa ya league, huh?" the blond laughed, at the expression on the other's face, "I'd say you have _every_ chance of gettin' laid tonight, 'Tem. So don't pass up a lay like 'im."

"Jou, I told you to shut up!" Atemu's mood was swinging rapidly downwards, the strange pull in his chest and sudden feeling of vulnerability was putting him in a sour mood.

"Go on, 'Tem." His friend continued, pleasantly oblivious to the other's torment, "See! Look, I told you he's been checkin' you out all night!"

Unwillingly Atemu's gaze followed Jounouchi's finger and the direction it pointed in and found, once again, a flash of those eyes in amongst the crowd. The wine glass had been set, empty, on the bar. His figure distinguishable even in those black clothes due to the way he moved, like water around the clumsy rocks that were the other people.

"Why the 'ell not?" Jou, shouted, exasperated, and then he looked up in surprising seriousness, "Atemu, honestly, when was the last time you went with someone? I know you've got this whole searching for 'The One' quest going on right now but you are never going to find 'The One' if you don't get out there and start looking!"

Atemu tried not to show how much the speech had disturbed him, "I don't think he –"

"There!" Jounouchi had become impassioned by his own quest to find Atemu's soul mate for him, and he had was certain this mystery sex on legs guy was definite material for such a position (at least that's what the alcohol was telling him). Atemu jumped at Jounouchi's outburst, automatically searching for the source of it.

There was a door at the back of the club that led outside, a short cut down an alley to the main road and bus stop. With a sharp jolt to his heart Atemu saw his stranger slipping out of that door. Another single flash of those dark eyes had him staring long after the door had closed behind him.

"Look he's leaving out the back door. Did'ya _see_ that look! He wants you to follow him Atemu. I know it!"

Atemu only just had time to hear Jounouchi's last exclamation; he had already stood up to follow.

"I'll finish yer drinks then?" Jounouchi shouted after him, gleefully, "Don't be late fer college tomorrow!"

It was like a dream, Atemu decided, everything had become like a dream. The way his surroundings blurred at the edges, the vague sense of needing to do something but not knowing what it was driving him forwards, the way he felt almost numb when his fingers met the surface of the door and pushed it open to let the cool air of the night brush over his heated cheeks. The muffled sound of the door closing behind him so the music was muffled and darkness enclosed in on him from the stars above.

Atemu stood alone in the alley, raising his hands to rub at his arms for warmth, the brick was damp from the rain earlier in the day, and the scent of moisture filled his nose. Where was his stranger? Had he read all the signs wrong? A flicker of fear disturbed him. The alley was deserted but the darkness seemed to be attaining a life of its own.

He gasped, nearly jumping out of his skin when a hand touched his arm, but the voice that seemed to caress his ears and coil around him like an affectionate snake calmed him.

"It's me." Was all that was said. But it was enough to identify who it was.

Atemu turned around, wondering how he had missed the person stood behind him with skin like snow that seemed to create its own luminescence in the darkness. And eyes so deep they could have been the dark side of the moon. Atemu shivered, but it was not because of the cold.

As the stranger stepped so close that their bodies touched he saw himself reflected in those eyes, a purple mirror in which his own image was doubled.

What was he doing? Standing here like a frightened rabbit as if he hadn't been through these steps a hundred times before? What was it about this stranger that paralysed him so? Why did he feel so out of his legue when he knew there was no legue that wouldn't accept him?

Impassioned and angered by his own hesitancy Atemu pushed himself firmly into that supple body and pressed his lips over the stranger's red, red mouth. A bolt of excitement charged through him, with his eyes closed Atemu could only feel the cool silk he was touching so intimately and it was a sensation that urged him to want more. He knew he had not read the signs wrong when the stranger pressed back, clever fingers trailing up his thighs as the arms came up to wrap him in a warm embrace. The other was talented, Atemu soon found out, as those lips coaxed him effortlessly into a slow game of brushing and touching and getle tugs and nips. Atemu had never been kissed in such a way that made his knees go weak and convinced him into beliveing they were the only two living in the world, but right now his only coherent thought was that he was not going to let this one go any time soon.

There was nothing more then the other's body and the warmth it raidiated, there was nothing but his silken touch and soft affection drowning him in sensation, there was nothing but his scent of fresh crisp air on a frosted morning, nothing but his taste of something spicy sweet.

Nothing but the sound of their soft breathing as they inhaled and exhaled each other.

Atemu felt his back touch the damp brick of the wall behind him, felt the other's hands pressing against his chest before trailing down to rest on his hips and push the two of them together more firmly, Atemu felt the damp on the back of his shirt but only cared about how the other's hair felt on his skin as he entagled his fingers into that mass of shimmering ebony and gold. Angling the other's head so their lips conected in almost seamless perfection and tongues began to join the game. Touching hesitently as if unsure of each other before Atemu, aroused by now by the hands that were resting comfortably on his behind, grew bold and allowed his tongue to work it's way past the other's and into that perfect mouth.

Where a sharp point pricked him as he brushed past the teeth.

Atemu felt reality tug him dangerously fast back into the real world. He pulled his head back and his mouth away from the other's in shock as a small growl resulted from the drop of blood that had dripped from his cut tongue. What the hell was that? The alcohol was still making him slower to react then he would usually have done and his befuddled mind was still working on a mounting lust, making it hard for Atemu to think clearly.

Making it hard for him to understand what he was seeing.

The delicious stranger that had watched him from the bar, that had danced with him under the bright lights, that had kissed him so passionately, was watching him with eyes that were no longer a hypnotising amethyst but a dark and swirlng red. He could still see the purple underneath, but the red that seemed born of lust and desire for things darker than ordinary pleasure misted over them. And those perfect pearly white teeth could finally be seen clearly under this almost non-existant light. Atemu's gaze was drawn down from the eyes that terrified him to the canines that were elongated and deadly sharp, curling elegantly around the bottom red lip.

"Wh-what?" He wanted to curse the stammer in his voice. But his body refused to comply as he tried to pull away from the wall and the other.

The other's hands moved up from around his hips, keeping a firmer grip than was necessary, and a taunting little smile pulled at his lips as he gripped Atemu's hands and pulled them above his head, pinning him against the wall.

"What's wrong?" His voice was sweet and kind, but Atemu was sure he detected the taunt in there, "It's me. It's only me."

_It's only a nightmare_, hissed a harsh voice at the back of Atemu's mind. He squirmed, wanting to escape and rush back inside where there was music and dancing and saftey and people. Real people. Not monsters of the night that moved like water and spoke like silk, who could entrance and ensnare the most expericened of people, who's eyes turned into the colour of lust and passion and blood, who's teeth were fangs like white icicles of the most desolate tundra.

But the grip around his wrists was iron stong, and the knee that had somehow worked its way between Atemu's thighs was distracting him in all the right ways. His breathing had picked up in both fear and arousal, the disturbing mixture of emotions only serving to confuse his fuzzy mind yet further. The body that loomed over him was imposing, it's dark shadow thicker than the night blanketed him so Atemu felt he could have merged there and then with his surroundings. There was a fire building in the pit of his stomach that refused to be extinguished despite the situation, there was his desire for the stranger still baring out his reason, there was the thrill of the situation that refused to listen to common sense.

He hated being trapped, hated the feel of helplessness, so why, in all of heaven and earth, were those exact traits such a turn on when in the arms of this gorgeous night creature?! He groaned as the other's knee moved so it rubbed against him intimately, pushing himself upwards along the thigh subconsciously until he heard quiet laughter in his ears. Atemu's eyes shot open a fierce red blush painting his cheeks as he realised what he had done. Okay, he admitted to himself, perhaps he _had_ fantasised about being pushed up against a wall by a gorgeous stranger. And so what if this gorgeous stranger happened to be the singularly most dangerous thing or person he had ever come into contact with? If anything, that enhanced his arousal. And the only fear that came to him seemed to be from how much he wanted to enjoy this danger.

The stranger appeared only amused, "It's a game you see?" A gentle voice, a hypnotising voice. The voice of a serpant. "One that never grows old."

Through the fresh air and passing minutes, Atemu had felt himself sobering up, yet the building fire in his body was making him feel as drunk as he had ever been, only drunk on other things. But he scowled at the glowing eyes and asked, "To see how fast you can get one of us alone?"

A small laugh, a sly tilt of the head, "Oh no. That part of the game is far too easy, Little Rose," Atemu jerked a little at the sound of the nickname, but the other simply ignored it, "Your kind will follow like lost lambs the first chance they get. There is no victory in coaxing a lamb to slaughter." Here he smirked, the first look from him that felt dark enough to reflect what he was, "The true victory lies in how well the second stage is played. The real game is seeing how long your kind can last before they give in, before how long my kind can last before _we_ give in."

There were implications in that last sentace that made Atemu shiver again.

"That is why, Little Rose," the stranger leaned in and brushed his cool lips over Atemu's own, trailing down to his jaw line and nipping a path up to his ear, Atemu tilted his head to give him more room and felt every word the stranger spoke next resonate throughout his core, "that is why they call me Yuugi."

_That is why they call me 'Game'. _The hissing voice, wind like, sounded smug with its own satisfaction.

Atemu's breath refused to flow smoothy into his lungs, "And... and the rules?"

"Rules?" He sounded genuinely surprised. A short pause followed, "There are no rules, not really. I suppose the only rule is the obvious metaphorical line: no children. That is a line no one may cross." The sharp glint returned to his eyes with a quiet giggle (for he could call it nothing other than a giggle, a twisted and darkened one), "But no changing the subject now. Your fate was sealed the moment you stepped outside tonight, you are not a child."

Atemu tried to concentrate, tried to work out what to do from what he wanted to do. And what he _wanted_ to do terrified him and so he attempted to ignore it for what he _should_ do. "Then, how do _I_ play this game? For a victory?"

Raised eyeborws and barefaced amusment were his answers, "You don't. You have already lost." There was a pause so he could absorb the effect of his words. "And perhaps it is time to end this game." He spoke, with a sterner tone then before.

Atemu looked at him in true fear this time, knowing that the grip that held him was too strong, knowing exactly what was about to happen.

And wondering why he was excited.

Yuugi leaned forward again to kiss him, and his lips were so gentle and coaxing that Atemu couldn't help but respond in kind. The kiss was beautiful. He tilted his head to recive more of it and pushed against that mouth with an eager little moan, that velvet tongue of the other's slipping between their lips and stimulating his own into movement until their actions could be called nothing more than raw. He didn't even notice when his wrists were released from the iron grip, but he did notice the fingers that trialed down his spine and made him arch into the other's chest and the arms that wrapped around his waist and held him close, his own hands lowering to grip the other's slim shoulders and dig his nails into the black shirt when that mouth pulled away from his and lowered to his neck where his pulse was racing.

Atemu tilted his head back to expose more skin. Panting, his eyes closed, and a look of delirious expectation gracing his features. The other closed his mouth around the pulse, an open mouthed kiss onto his neck, marking him and invigorating the bloodflow with his tongue. Atemu relaxed completely letting himself all but fall into the other.

And then came the bite.

He inhaled sharply, the pain making his shoulders stiff and his fingers clench. It was hot. Heat that burned him alive from the inside out. The pair of fangs that had sunk so deeply into his neck felt like white hot irons branding him forever as propety. The tugging at his veins made him whimper and as weakness overcame him he stumbled and tried to pull away, but the arms caught him tight and a hand came up to hold his head and tilt it, better to ravage every inch of him. A deep growl resonated from the other's throat and into his own skin, forcing into him a distant sense of reality amd situation. But knowing what was happening didn't make him want to stop it. He was growing colder by the second, feeling fainter with every drop of blood that was drunk from his body, but he welcomed it. He welcomed the completeness of the agony and death of his sanity. He welcomed what the other was doing to him with open arms and a kiss.

And suddenly the fangs were gone, the tugging on his veins calmed, and he was exposed to the icy air of the night as his murderer pulled away. Atemu tried vainly to force oxygen into his lungs, holding onto reality with a steel will alone. He saw the crimson blood glisten on the other's teeth and tongue as if he had drank liquid rubies mixed with thick shadows straight from the wine glass he was holding so long ago. Atemu felt how warm the other felt now, how flushed and alive his skin was with colour, how richly the creature was savouring every moment with every sensation.

"How strange," even his voice sounded more alive, hot chocolate and strawberries, "that I cannot kill you directly. Why can I not take the last beat of your heart into myself? Why must I stop when there is so much left?"

A deep frown now marred his perfect features, a thoughtful demeanour fell over him, "Why are you different?"

He looked at him for a long moment as Atemu gasped for breath, dying in his arms, "I can only think of one explanation. That you are not meant to die. But I've never raised a fledgling of my own, I doubt I'd be any good." His eyes were searching for something Atemu couldn't understand, "But what do you think? Either way you are going to die."

Atemu couldn't have told him what he thought even if he had wanted to. His throat was closing into itself, his voice a shadow of a whisper and a whimper. But he knew one thing.

He refused to die.

Yuugi's eyes narrowed, as if surprised by what he had found, as if confused by what it meant. Slowly he lowed them both the the ground, kneeling and letting Atemu rest on him as his heart struggled to beat.

"At the end of it all," He muttered to himself, "It is not my choice. So I will give it to you. One or the other, Atemu, if you are strong enough to keep hold of what is left."

He raised the index finger of his right hand to his lips, Atemu saw him nip the tip with a sharp fang so blood blossomed and beeded like a large sequin on his white skin. He moved his other arm and braced Atemu against the wall this time, using the uninjured hand to gently part his blue lips open wider. Articulately and with great reverence, he dripped three drops of his own blood onto Atemu's tongue.

The blood burned. Lava on ice.

"Your death is unavoidable," the serpant in his voice, "but will your death be one of peace? Or will you play your own game?"

Yuugi stood then, looked down at him with half lidded eyes. There were black spots plaguing his vision, a lightheaded disease making reality spin and colours blur. But those amethyst eyes reamined still and constant. But then the other turned away and walked back down the alley to the deserted main road where he paused. Under his shirt there was a flash of light the shape of an ankh, but it was so dull it could have been nothing more than the light of a streetlamp. And then he was gone.

Atemu was left leaning aganst the vibrating wall of the club. Bleeding and half alive. His heart tripped over several beats, his lungs quivered pathetcialy in his chest, his body was too heavy to move and too cold to feel. He shivered and cursed and heared nothing over the roaring of the perfectly still air.

And he refused to die.

---

**AN: **Yay! It's finally finished! Took soooo bloody long! A gift for Halloween. Despite the fact I don't, really, celabrate it. Hmmm, now I need to find something to put up for Bonfire Night which is, like, OMG Monday! Bring on the dangerous fire and the ridiculous amount of fireworks! Oh, and the sparklers. All while pretending I'm not a pyromaniac. Should be fun.

There will be awful typos and mistatakes left, right and centre in the second half of this becuase I have been forced, thanks to ffn's new layout, to type it out, raw, straight onto the document page. Because, you see, half of this is on the computer at home and the rest is on my laptop here. I can no longer copy and paste due to the new thingys they're doing. I am, thus, not in least bit amused with ffn right now.

Either way I hope you enjoyed my wildly OC Yuugi! I love him like that.

Review Please!

(and it may pull me out of this uni haze to get to work on the other stuff that needs updating/finishing)

Happy Halloween and Review!


	5. Sweet Angel II

**AN:** And you all thought I was going to be horrible and leave poor Yami all alone. Shame on you all. It's Yuugi's turn now everybody!

**Blood and Roses**

**Sweet Angel II**

You are dying now.

I can see it in the pallor of your skin, I can hear it in the beat of your heart, I can feel it in the frailty of your body, I can smell it in the air that you breathe and taste it in the food you will not and cannot eat. I can sense it in the embers of your flaming spirit.

Today death will claim your body.

You are not alone though, far from it. You lie on the bed for two you have slept in for all your life, yet there has only ever been you to fill the empty void of sheet and soft down. You lie there with the peace of someone waiting for the morning to bring another day, but all who know you know it is your deathbed.

They surround you, they stand and stare with fixed eyes as if terrified of missing your final breath. But you are waiting. And I know what you are waiting for.

They wear black, your family, as they stand to watch you die. Your sisters are there with their husbands, your nieces and nephews, your cousins, your ancient aunt, your closest friends.

But where, my charge, are your children? Your wife?

You never married. You were too loyal. Too much in love.

Too captured by a childhood dream to ever escape that shadow love cast over you. For that, my rose, I beg your forgiveness. Had I known what the sight of me would do to you… Had I known what knowing me would cause your life to become… Had I understood the effect my foolish affection would create…

I would have stayed still and silent. I would have set you free. But I am selfish. Far more selfish than any angel of any rank has any right to be. For though you always doubted me due purely to the nature of my being, I love you. And not in the way I love all things. I love you as I should not.

I remember the years that passed since our parting, though it was never a true separation, I was always with you and you knew this as easily as you knew how to breathe. Those years passed as blinks of my eye. I was always proud of you, you must know, I was always astounded by you, by everything that made you the one I loved. You once wondered what would happen if my Masters discovered my infatuation with a mortal, my answer is that they already knew. It was not you alone they feared, it was not what you could do to me in your desire that they dreaded, for they feared me too. They feared what I could do, what sin I could commit when overcome with wonder for you. And I am filled with wonder.

I am reminded now, as your youngest niece looks up at your sister, her mother, in confusion, for she does not understand the severity of the situation, I am reminded of another young girl from many years ago. One with bright blue eyes and hair like liquid gold, barely reaching the fifth anniversary of her birth, stood by the gate to your home with a worn rag doll clutched tight to her blue satin dress. She was lost, she told you, and wished to know where her father had gotten to. You were kind and spoke to her, but she had already forgotten you to stare past your shoulder. At me. For she was a gifted child with pure eyes and saw my presence as easily as she saw your own.

You turned to look over your shoulder to follow her awe filled gaze, and instead of feeling confusion at seeing nothing, you smiled at empty air. I will always remember that smile, I know, right until the final trumpet sounds.

You ushered her forwards then, and she came and spoke to me as if I were the most wondrous thing she had ever seen. Children are so delightfully easy to amuse. She asked me who I was. I replied I was a friend and a confidant. She asked me if I knew where her father was. I told her to follow this road and she would find him by the meadow. She asked me if I knew what Heaven was like. I told her I did, and that one day she would too, as would the knight stood by the gate. She thanked me then and left. But just as she was waving goodbye, she turned to you and spoke with perfect conviction. She said: "Someday I wish to find a husband who will love me as much as your angel does."

The parting words the girl gave to you infused you with strength and conviction I had almost forgotten you were capable of. With these worlds to fuel you, you accomplished great things. And now, so many years later, you are a hero and I am still here to give to you whatever you need, whatever you want. Everything I am is yours, and even the Masters know, that everything you are is mine.

You draw a shuddered breath now, your gaze flickers about the room. Your family hold their breath, for they think the time has come. Conversation is slow and quiet. There is almost no sound at all. Humans are creatures I do not understand, why would they want to stand and watch you die? Why would they make such knowledge inescapable for you to forget?

And yet I smile. For you do not fear death, you look forward to it.

I think now is the time.

You know immediately what has happened. You know the very instant I have invoked your vision, you know when I push my power into the grace of pure sight, you know I am here, and that you will see me now.

Your gaze is just as powerful as it was when we were young, your spirit just as strong, your eyes find me without having to look. It is the first time we have made direct contact since I was forced to leave you. It is almost overwhelming.

Your family cannot see the light I cast upon the room, they cannot see what you are watching with such intensity, they do not feel me brush them to one side, nor stop me from reaching your bed to lean over you with my wing draping as a blanket of warmth over your cold body. They cannot understand why your tears come now through joy and love. Our foreheads touch. You breathe me in. I brush your cheek with my curled fingers. And the murmur that passes your open lips is an exclamation of ecstacy, the sound of my name, you are the only human to know it, _Yuugi. _I feel a great sense of peace overcome me, my chest constricts with emotion, my sweet shadow, my Yami, we belong to each other. Perhaps you will earn your own pair of wings when we are in Heaven, even if the light in your soul is insufficient to hold your own there, I will never allow them to take you away, your place will be beside me forever in our own private paradise.

You are crying. You are ready. I whisper to you, a voice you have longed to hear for decades, my charge, my rose, my love. You are ready.

And you close your eyes and let me kiss you, at last, upon the lips. A simple, soft, touch of lips that conveys our love more than any show of passion could.

I lift you, now, from this mortal coil. Your body dies with a soft sigh and look of bliss. Your family seem to wail as one in their grief, but they are nought but noise.

And in my arms you are nought but a soul that sleeps as I cradle you in bliss. I am your paradise, you need no other heaven, though I will fly you there anyway.

It is us now. Only us. With nothing more to stand in our way.

-

**AN: **Hmmm, Yuugi went kinda possesive towards the end there, didn't intend that, honest. Doesn't mean it's not cool though lol. It is a little short, but that's how I intended it, short and sweet (and I possibly forgot one of the little things I was going to write that would have taken another couple of hundered words, possibly).

Please Review? (That means you too Little Miss You Know Who You Are - review or fear my wrath of no Legend of Zelda for a month!)

Review! (Next one will be either vampire, archaic (kinda almost Romeo Juliet style), or general freeky magic including unfortunate souls trapped in ragdolls - tell me if you have any particular preferance and this time I promise I'll do it.)


	6. On Walking Backwards

Questions & Answers: Right, first I'm going to give a couple of reviewers feedback on their queries.

Kyo lover with little sanity - errr about that alien fic. It isn't exactly going very far very fast I'm afraid. I want to write it, I really do, but I have to be in a certain type of mood to be able to write the kind of light hearted m-preg I want it to be - and that mood doesn't hit very often now with uni draining my brain on a daily basis. Also it has no plot. Or at least not much of one. Which isn't proving to be much fun either. The fic will come, just not for what promises to be a very long time. Sorry.

Kurama-ness - The tendershipping hasn't made much of an appearnce yet I know, but it will. It has a couple of fics where it will make a very strong apparence, maybe even be centred around them! But for the moment still sat on my computer they be.

Disclaimer: I do not own 'Yu-Gi-Oh' or the poem 'On Walking Backwards'.

**Summery:** 'The dead, after all, do not walk backwards but they do walk behind us. They are victims of love, many of them.' YxYY

**Blood and Roses**

**On Walking Backwards**

Yuugi has suffered through many things in his life. By no accounts is he your average teenager worrying about exam results or the social ladder. There has been drama since the very beginning, a premature child rejected by his mother and shunned to be raised by his grandfather, a child who seemed to draw the unsavoury to him in droves with waves of unpleasant beatings and threats, a friendless creature lost in his own world of jigsaw pieces and the spots on a die. But this is not a woeful list of his troublesome past; this is the present. This is the boy that died in the Shadow Realm, the boy that chose to remain in a warehouse that was disintegrating around him under an inferno, this is the boy that stayed supporting as the Shadows chipped away at his soul, the boy that threw himself before a light that could have sacrificed him to a monster, and the boy that defeated the greatest gamer in the world at his own game. This is the boy that went through all this for another.

This is the boy that still wears the Sennen Puzzle around his neck.

'Mou hitori no boku.' He thinks even now and wonders why, 'Atemu, you shunned your true death and chose limbo as a spirit chained to a boy and a golden pyramid. Why?'

His other does not answer, because Yuugi has not yet mustered the courage to ask him these questions. The 'why' echoes around his own mind relentlessly, but does not cross the boundary into his other's mind and so Atemu never thinks to answer the question he does not hear.

The leaves are coloured like autumn and the wind feels like winter, the year is an old man now and presses cooling fingers against windows in the early morning, the impression of his presence leaves behind a white layer of icing sugar on the glass that children draw shapes and pictures in before school.

Yuugi sits very still sometimes, he likes to watch the year go through its cycle of birth and death, likes to think of it as his own dear friend showing him pathways and roads through life. His other will sometimes watch with him, looking through his eyes. But he often does not see what Yuugi sees; Atemu has a different way of thinking. Their minds do not work in the same way. Even connected as they are, they feel things differently, but not always separately. For instance, if Yuugi ever felt pain, Atemu would immediately rush to claim control over the body and alleviate Yuugi from suffering, he would then seek to destroy whatever caused his Aibou pain. He protects his host because it is what he knows best, but sometimes Yuugi wishes he knew what it felt like to have to endure physical hurt. To contradict this, if Atemu ever felt pain, Yuugi would not fight to be the one to endure it, but he would be the first by his other's side. Rather than protect his other with shields and walls, Yuugi will guide him and aid him through hardships.

'Mou hitori no boku,' he wonders and thinks over and over again, 'what is it that made you turn from the Door and walk back to me? Why?'

His other is resting now, Yuugi can feel the vibrations of sleep coming from Atemu's mind, they make him smile and think found thoughts. Atemu is gentle, sometimes, when he wants to be. Atemu is gentle with him, most of the time. His other will always confuse Yuugi. But still, Yuugi will always love his other.

It took four years for them to reach the point of an ultimatum. The one they knew had been hurtling towards them in a great flaming comet of 'destiny' since the beginning. Well, Yuugi reflects, perhaps not quite the beginning. The beginning was filled with unexplainable gaps in his memory and frightening news reports of deaths and vandalism. His other had not been very tame when he first woke. He was better now Yuugi had taught him how to behave. Subtly of course, Atemu's pride would never allow a boy a fraction of his age to sit him down and teach him etiquette as if he were a feral child.

'Mou hitori no boku,' he thinks with a quirk of a smile on his lips, 'my darling feral child.'

Atemu was still a little wild, no matter how proud, no matter how royal and prestigious his long dead blood might be, he is still not rounded around the edges. His other is not a diamond in the rough. His other is a coarse and, if he is blatantly honest with himself, egotistical pig.

Yuugi knows this is why his closest friends secretly disapprove of his other. But he does not know why Atemu has chosen this life over his afterlife, and then cloistered himself up in his heart's room to rarely look out at the world outside of Yuugi's body. His other is a strange spirit.

It has now been a year since that ultimatum. And Yuugi still wears the Sennen Puzzle around his neck.

He is also yet to ask, 'why?'

If Yuugi closed his eyes right now and looked back at that scene he would not see a true rendition of the events, for it was like looking through a mirror of smoked glass and gave him the most peculiar sensation of walking backwards. His thoughts moved slowly when he thought about it, and as a consequence the smoky images moved as if in slow motion. Visually the events played out correctly behind the smoke, but not in a linear or coherent order, scenes kept flickering from start to end and from middle to another scene entirely. Yuugi could not control his memory from then, his emotions were in too much turmoil, his mind too confused. It was like walking backwards uphill, a lot of effort and a lot of moving your thoughts in a way that you wouldn't normally think of.

And on the topic of walking backwards, it is a strange pursuit. Yuugi turns on his spot in the path and begins to watch where he has been rather than where he is going. He glances up and sees the colourful leaves of autumn's hair shiver in winter's breath. His scarf flutters and flaps in front of him (or is it behind?) as if it felt the need to imitate a flag at full mast. The world reveals itself slowly to him, small little surprises he cannot see coming because he can only see where he has already been. Walking backwards is a strange pursuit.

'Mou hitori no boku?' This time he directs his thought to his other.

Atemu stirs in his mind and wakes enough to ask in that deep insubstantial voice of his 'Aibou?'

'What do you dream of?' It is a random question made up on the spot, borne of the desire to simply hear his other's powerful voice, a question made of obscurities and childish curiosity.

Atemu is a little irritated by the question, he is always irritable when he wakes, 'Dream, Aibou?'

Yuugi smiles and continues walking backwards, 'Yes, Mou hitori no boku, dream. The thing people do when they sleep.'

'I do not dream.' The answer is curt and forward. His other does not like avoiding an issue, he will say what he thinks and he will not buffer his words or soften their meaning for anyone's benefit. He is blunt and he is rough.

'How can you not dream,' he is confused, 'I have heard you muttering in your sleep before, Mou hitori no boku.'

'I only dream things that you have dreamt before. I only see the things that you see. I can only feel what you feel. My emotions are products of yours. My dreams, Aibou, I share with you because I have none of my own.'

Yuugi clasps his gloved hands behind his back, his boots make the gravel crackle, there is no one here now it is so cold. The year is an old man and Japan is a busy place, the people are elsewhere. He sends feelings of apology to his other, Atemu accepts them but sends nothing back. He is upset. Atemu likes to think he can hide his emotions, and when he takes control of the body he can obscure them to anyone else other than Yuugi. Yuugi can feel his other's mind too acutely, even when he sits in his heart's room, as Atemu possesses his/their/the body, Yuugi can feel his other. Atemu's mind feels like a peculiar resonation, like the stings of a harp or violin playing in his mind. And right now he is upset.

Yuugi cannot think what to say anymore to make Atemu more agreeable. Atemu moves to the front of Yuugi's mind to look through his eyes, Yuugi can feel his confusion and disproval.

'What are you doing, Aibou?'

'Walking backwards, Mou hitori no boku.' He says with a smile.

'Why?'

Yuugi pauses, there is the question he has wanted to ask Atemu for a year but has never found the right words. Soon he will ask, he hopes, and soon he will have an answer. 'Why not?'

'Aibou.' His other says with a stern voice, 'You look ridiculous.'

'There is no one here, Mou hitori no boku.'

His other is upset, and it can be seen through his unreasonable irritation that is not quite yet anger, 'Stop it.'

'Why?' He asks the question suddenly, so suddenly he wonders if he asked it at all.

But his other does not notice, 'Because it is stupid and childish and there is no reason for anyone to walk backwards.'

Yuugi stops walking and looks back at where he has been, 'You are wrong, Mou hitori no boku. There is always a reason to walk backwards. And that's not what I meant.'

He feels his other's confusion. Yuugi lifts his hand and runs his gloved fingers over the eye of Horus that stares unblinking from the centre of his golden necklace. The Sennen Puzzle is still here around his neck. And his other understands his question.

'Why not.' He speaks, and for once Yuugi can hear that it is a lie.

'Mou hitori no boku,' he speaks with affection, 'The other day I heard something. A poem.'

'Your point?' His other snaps.

'It was called "On Walking Backwards".' Yuugi opened his mouth and this time he spoke aloud so his friend the old year could listen too:

"My mother forbad us to walk backwards. That is how the dead

walk, she would say. Where did she get this idea? Perhaps from a

bad translation. The dead, after all, do not walk backwards but

they do walk behind us. They have no lungs and cannot call out

but would love for us to turn around. They are victims of love,

many of them."

'Now tell me, Mou hitori no boku, why didn't you leave this world when you had the chance?'

Yuugi turns now, and he is not surprised to see Atemu stood behind him. He is transparent and immaterial. He is a ghost that only Yuugi can see. He is not even a ghost, but a spirit creating an image of itself with the power of its host's mind. Atemu is not Japanese. He is Egyptian. His eyes are a brown so deep they are red. He was once a king, before the Sennen Puzzle broke. He meets Yuugi's eyes but cannot speak.

Yuugi, now facing where he is going, smiles at his other's image. The lungs of the dead have long since decayed, they cannot find breath for speach to talk with the lving, but would love for the living to recognise them and give them voice and feeling.

The year is an old man, but very soon it will be a young boy once more.

Yuugi wishes he could feel his other's lips on his own.

His other wishes he could kiss him in reality.

'There is something you should know about the dead that are not dead, Aibou. They are victims of love, many of them.'

Within the rooms of their hearts, their souls and minds can merge. And that is just as good as anything physical. 'You see, Mou hitori no boku? Everyone should try walking backwards. Once in a while.'

-

**AN:** I like this one. I really do.

Review Please?


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